The Wanderer's Log
by Lord Pyrus
Summary: Follow The Lone Wanderer as he adventures throughout the Capital Wasteland following the war for Project Purity. Each chapter is a short story.
1. Even Outcasts Can Shine

**This is the first of many short stories I'll be writing about, so there'll be more. Sorry for my delay, this holiday season was unusual.**

The blaze of the sun beat down on his fiery black and red armor, absorbing the intense rays, adding to the man's discomfort. To add upon that, he was in an intense gun fight with some Enclave soldiers. Normally the man wouldn't have engaged, but he had caught sight of a, by the looks of it, Brotherhood Knight under intense fire.

Honestly... I love this. I'm pretty glad Dad left the Vault. Ducking back behind the rock he was using for shelter, he dropped his hunting rifle. The Knight in question was laying on the ground, hand over her wounds in her gut.

Th

Grabbing out a Stimpack, he used it on her, trying to slow the bleeding, before sliding his Gauss rifle from his back and peeking back over the rock. Three more. Just three more. And there'll be a ton of power armor to loot afterward.

He had no delusion that he couldn't handle these guys, but you could never know out here, in the Wasteland. Firing off one shot, he saw with satisfaction one of the soldier's head blow off. Firing another shot, he killed the second one.

Crouching back behind the rock, he reloaded his rifle. The Knight looked better, color coming back to her face. Her crimson hair was blown all about, spread around her head like a halo. He had removed the damaged helmet when he had managed to haul her behind this rock.

She groaned, trying to move, but he shook his head, pressing her chest gently to keep her on the ground. "Not yet Knight. Wait." He poked his head up, aiming for the last soldier, and was surprised when he couldn't see him. _Either... Ran off or..._ He grit his teeth. _A Stealth Boy!_

Looking back down at the Knight, he lowered his gun. "Listen Kni-" The Knight cut him off. "It's Lara. Lara Kitar." He sighed, shaking his head. "This is not the time or the place. Now, let's get you out of- AH!"

He leaned back, clutching his shoulder. His suspicions were right, the soldier had used a Stealth Boy, and he was too busy listening to this inept Knight to take action. And, as any normal soldier should do, he used the situation to get a... Not well placed shot, it went through his shoulder, definitely smashing his shoulder blade, probably piercing tendons.

Still, at least it didn't go through his head. While he writhed on the ground, reaching for his Gauss rifle. Then, an armored boot slammed down on his hand. Just his luck, the soldier decided to stick around and brag before he probably blew out his brains.

The Enclave officer laughed. "Well well. When we found this Brotherhood troop, we thought we hit pay dirt. Clear them out, get some free tech." He reached out and wrenched the man's Outcast helmet off. Then, he laughed as the bright blue eyes came into view. "And look who we have here! Luke Drastin. The son of the man who nearly cost us Project Purity." He growled, grinding his foot harder on Luke's arm. "And the man who cost us the Project entirely. How my superiors will love this."

Luke grit his teeth, trying in vain to reach for his Plasma Pistol with his bad arm. "I did it because you bastards were going to poison the purifier." The officer just laughed. "And you will die for that." He calmly pulled out a 10 mm pistol, and knelt down, pressing the barrel of the gun to his face. "First you, then your unconscious friend, and then no one else can stand against us." _He sounds like Autumn on his monologue._

It's hard to remain calm while there's a gun jammed to one's forehead, but Luke made the best he could. _Unconscious? But she was..._ Two shots fired, not one of a 10 mm, but one of a Plasma Pistol. Lara had apparently played dead, in actuality she had grabbed Luke's gun. The Enclave officer's head instantly melted into green goo, falling to the ground with a disgusting splat.

Getting up, he kicked the man's corpse aside, swearing under his breath. Once he had cursed to his liking, he went over to Lara. Crouching, he took the pistol away from her. "Nice shot. But why did you save me? I mean, I'm not ungrateful," he chuckled. "But usually Brotherhood don't save Outcasts."

She seemed to seriously consider this question, before shaking her head. "I'll answer your question with one. Why did you go out of your way to save my sorry hide? Like you said, Outcasts usually don't save Brotherhood." Luke's smile faltered a little. "I... I've helped the Brotherhood before. Like that piece of filth said, James is my father. I've always hated the Enclave anyways, I'm sick of their bullying tactics." He sighed, rubbing his forehead with his armored hand. "I'm messing this up. Basically... I didn't want to see any more good guys die. Like Three Dog says, fight the good fight." His smile returned to him at the thought of the DJ.

Lara seemed to nod. "Then there's my answer. Now could you please get this crap off and wrap my wound up?" Luke flat out laughed. "Your highness commands it." He carefully pressed the buttons to make the armor pop off. She was wearing standard Brotherhood fatigues. She was quite beautiful to be brutally honest, marred only by the bullet wound in her gut.

He shook his head, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that garbage. He was still waiting for Amata to hurry and fix the Vault, he was wanting to spend some time with her. He had honestly had a crush on her for the longest of times, in fact the day he was abruptly awoken to a new life by Amata, he was going to ask her out.

Still, he couldn't help thinking about how this Knight looked. Then he mentally slapped himself. _Focus on the problem. Wound in gut. Stimpack. Bandages._ He quickly and effectively wrapped up her wAuthoround, and gave her some purified water, compliments of Project Purity, to drink while he cleaned the wound.

Once he finished, he wiped his bloody hands on his power armor, and chuckled. Lara frowned, giving him a strange look. "What is it?" Luke shook his head. "Wel, I can't just leave you here. How about I bring you to the Citadel?"

 **Author's Notes**

 **So yeah, the first short story from a series. And no, there will most likely not be a continuation of this specific story.**

 **Every chapter is going to be another story, just to let you guys know.**

 **I'm finalizing the next chapter for The End of One Thing story, so don't worry guys.**

 **I'm going to be posting a ton of stories after this, so my muse will be strained, so don't panic if I don't update my stories often.**


	2. Icarus Coding

The man known as the Lone Wanderer was rumored to have an epic life, adventure, women, and luxury.

That couldn't be farther from the truth. Well, yes on adventure, but basically nothing on the others. (And asking women out was awkward, unless you count Sarah, who actually asked him out) Luke was actually in the Citadel, swearing under his breath as he leaned over a set of dismantled power armor. It had been pried from the body of an Enclave Hellfire officer, and of course the Brotherhood had no idea what advanced systems were in it, so they asked him to do it.

Probably a scribe would be more qualified to poke through it, but it doesn't matter. It's kinda cool to mess with Enclave tech. He had already pried out the secrets of the armor, and was modifying it. He reached down to grab a wrench, but couldn't find it, and ended up getting his hand stuck in a piece of the blasted armor.

Looking up, he saw Sarah Lyons sitting on the table he was working on, twirling the exact wrench he was looking for. Luke sighed. "Sentinel Lyons. What brings you to my workshop?" Normally he wasn't so formal with her, she was a good friend of his, but his patience had been strained by this armor.

Sarah's eyes glimmered with something similar to mischief. "What's with the formalities Luke?" It was rhetorical, she knew him well enough to know. Luke shut his eyes. "Is this about that... Date you wanted to go on? I've already told you, my idea of a date isn't blasting a bunch of Mutie heads o-"

She cut him off with a simple wave of her hand. "Well, partially. My father wanted me to check up on how the project's going. Then the date." Luke chuckled, partially at her bluntness, and partially at the admittance of the date.

Now he couldn't say he never thought of her romantically, (in fact, when he first ran into her while heading to Three Dog's studio ages ago he developed a major crush), but now he thought of her as an ally and a friend. So when she asked him out the first time, he was flattered. Then he found out she enjoyed killing Muties.

There's nothing wrong with killing Muties, but on a date? No thanks. "The armor is being stubborn, though I'm making slow improvements." He paused, before continuing. "And could I have that wrench? My hand's stuck." Sarah laughed, passing him the wrench. He mumbled thanks as he managed to yank his hand out.

"Do you need any help with that? I mean, I'm pretty good with mechanics." Sarah offered. Luke fell silent for a moment, thinking it over. "Sure. Though do you even know what I'm building?" The Sentinel shook her head. Luke grinned. "I'm trying to convert the ionic and fusion energy to kinetic energy, which should let you fly without a Vertibird or a jet pack."

Sarah smiled as well, planting a small kiss on his cheek. "Brilliant." Luke merely shrugged, attempting to be humble. "I've always wanted to fly, and this is just one small step." She shook her head, chuckling. "Stop playing humble, you can't pretend squat."

Luke laughed. "Might as well try. Anyways... Could you grab that Tesla coil?" He asked, returning to his task. Sarah did as he asked, gingerly holding the sparking component. "What ever happened to Amata and your Vault?" She brought up. "Well... That was out of the blue."

He didn't want to talk about it honestly. He had gotten banished from the Vault, because of some bull about 'trying to stabilize things'. He remained silent, tinkering with the armor, before muttering something along the lines of 'I don't need to go back.'

She frowned, realizing she treaded on a touchy subject. Changing said subject, "Hey, who's going to test it once it's done?" Luke shook his head. "Me. If something goes wrong, I don't want anyone else to get hurt." He looked at her pointedly. "You can use it once it's one hundred percent done."

She pouted, something she could apparently do on demand. "You are always so damned noble." Luke raised an eyebrow. "Do you expect anything different?" She chuckled. "No. Carry on, Paladin." Luke snorted, grin spreading in his face. "What?"

"Now you're the one being formal."

 **Author's Notes**

 **Hey guys! So, this is the newest chapter (duh), and as you can tell, these two are, under my stories, officially canon. So keep that in mind.**

 **I'm thinking of either doing a Mothership Zeta chapter, or perhaps eliminating all the slavers in Paridise Falls.**

 **Or maybe he'll head to the Commonwealth. You never know.**

 **If you guys have any preferences, just drop a comment in the reviews, and I'll read them!**

 **Please note that this chapter is slightly shorter in length than all my others may but bear with me here. This is a bunch of short stories, they'll vary in length though I'll try to to keep them around the 1000- 1500 range.**


	3. A Talon and a Bomb

Underneath the hot Wasteland sun, it was silent, save a few Radscorpions trying to kill some Yao-gais. Slowly, the sound of Vertibirds filled the air, and few came into the area, scouting it. Alongside the choppers, a figure in Hellfire armor flew. Well, it was more like hovering, imagine Iron Man.

Hey, that reference is still valid 200 years later, don't judge. Luke tapped his helmet, clearing out some static. "Yeah, I can see it. Looks like we'll have a fight on our hands, it's crawling with Talon mercs." He had been ordered to find out what happened to their recon team Alpha, as they had gone dark scouting the place.

Instead of the traditional Paladin armor, he had decided to test out the prototype, which he had taken to call the Icarus Mk I. "Alright, Henry, you take your men and Lydia's, and wait for me to give the signal, I think I see our missing recon team."

Henry was a Paladin who had been retrained as a Lancer, the new term that Vertibird pilots took. Granted, there weren't many of them, the Brotherhood had only managed to capture a few from various outposts, and Raven Rock.

Lydia was also a Paladin retrained as a Lancer, but she was a pretty close friend of his. They had met once he had woken up from the battle for Project Purity. "Don't ya think it's a trap, Luke?" She asked through the comms. "Maybe, maybe not. But I'd like to get a few extra soldiers before fighting."

While the two Vertibirds went to land a safe distance, he silently touched down next to the trio of Brotherhood soldiers. Instantly, the three leveled weapons at him, thinking him as Enclave, before he raised his hands up and flashed his personal holotags in front of them. "Paladin Drastin, here to support."

The Knight of the group (the others were Paladins, by the look of it) sighed in relief. "Good. We need it." One of the Paladins nodded, before commenting as well. "Paladin Kosovo. We lost one of our Paladins scouting this dirty merc filled cesspool. We were about to attack, but we're badly outnumbered."

Luke nodded. "Well, we have two Vertibirds worth of troops here. Courtesy of Raven Rock." The whole Raven Rock thing was a little joke amongst the Brotherhood, since they secured a couple of them before it exploded.

Kosovo nodded. "Good. Send them in, we'll attack on the ground." With that, Luke tapped his comms piece in his helmet. "Lydia. Henry. Time for the calvary." Both Lancers grunted affirmative, before they appeared over the ridges.

Luke had already turned to attack, pulling out the ancient, Chinese made Gauss Rifle, and taking a couple shots at the Talon mercenaries with missile launchers, to prevent the Vertibirds from going down.

After the missile launching mercs were blown apart, the fort fell within an hour. Losses were minimal (a single Initiate, some Knights by the Mk VIII turrets), and the supplies found were tremendous in both quality and quantity. Luke decided to spend the night at the fort, and soon he found himself drinking some of the alcoholic drinks he had scrounged from the Commander's room, along with Henry and Lydia.

One thing could be said about the Lone Wanderer: he could not hold drink very well. Just after the second glass, he could feel himself getting numb, and his speech slurring just a teeny bit. Lydia took a very large note of that. "What's this? The destroyer of Raven Rock can't hold a drink?" He took a sluggish swipe at the Lancer, amused expression on his face.

"I... I can't help it if I waaasn't built for strong drink." Henry chuckled, pouring Luke another glass. "You aren't tipsy enough yet. I can't wait to see what happens." Lydia laughed. "Trying to drown him in alcohol, are you?" The other Lancer grinned. "Like you wouldn't try to do so yourself. Everyone knows that you like-" Obviously this was met with a slap to the face.

"Geez Lydia. No need for injuries." Henry complained, rubbing the red marks on his face. Luke chortled. "Should've worn your Power Armor." "Did you even get what I was s... Oh, forget it. I'm heading to my tent." Henry groaned, face palming. The Lancer promptly got up and left.

Once Henry had left, Lydia scooted closer to Luke, who promptly chugged down the drink, feeling warmth flowing through his system. "Ahh... That's the goobd stuff." He chuckled at his own words. "I think I did have twoo much to drink."

"I think it's cute." The Lancer prompted, finally leaning against Luke, staring at the fire. Luke shrugged, not really understanding what Lydia was meaning, as his mind was sluggish. He slowly shut his eyes, feeling pleasantly warm.

"Hey Luke, I've been wondering, is it serious between you and Sentinel Lyons? Because if not- are you even listening?" Too late, the Paladin was already snoring. Lydia sighed, kissing his cheek before heading to her tent.

One day later...

Lydia was piloting over the Wasteland, with Luke in tow. Megaton wasn't really on the course back to the Citadel, but he had wanted to visit his home (bought it for 2000 caps), and drop off some items. The Paladin in question was sitting in the back of the Vertibird, groaning as he held his head. "I shouldn't have had that second glass..."

The Lancer laughed. "That's what you get for deciding to drink, you goof. Well, we're here." Lydia landed right outside the gates, saluting to the Aqua Pura BoS guards that happened to be there at the moment.

Luke slowly got out, feeling cramps in his legs. Glad I'm wearing power armor. Shaking his head, he entered the town, greeted by Lucas Simms, the town's sheriff. "Well if it ain't my favorite Vault Dweller. What brings you back to Megaton?" Luke smiled, nodding his head. "Just heading home for some storage." The Regulator tipped his hat. "Very well, once you're done, I would like a word with you." Mystified, Luke nodded, heading to his house.

Now, his house didn't look like much from the outside, but the inside had been reformatted (complete with two Mk VII turrets near the door) as an armory. The bottom floor was usual, kitchen, bobble head stand(love to collect those), and Wadsworth sweeping the floor. The top floor was completely different, locked doors, mountains of power armor and armaments. Truth be told, no one but him even knew he had this much, Lydia just thought he had a few extra sets of armor, and maybe a gun.

Going to the armor room, he looked around proudly at his collection. According to Wadsworth(he never counted, literally there was too much), he owned about eighty sets of Enclave armor, twenty sets of Tesla armor, thirty sets of Hellfire armor, twenty sets of Brotherhood power armor(no, he did NOT kill any Brothers to obtain this. Purely from the remains of the Washington monument, and the battle of GNR), and ten sets of Brotherhood Outcast armor(found a Deathclaw tearing several patrols to shreds up north, near the remnants of Raven Rock), and his personal Lyons' Pride power armor. Then there was his shiny Winterized T-51b power armor from the Outcast Outpost, and his normal T-51b set.

Grabbing a single set of Enclave power armor for Sarah, he gently placed a Hellfire helmet on a stand, also before grabbing a plasma rifle and his Alien Blaster from his weapons room. Strapping said weapons to his back, he walked outside, catching sight of Simms. "What did you need?" Lucas glanced around, before talking in a lower tone.

"That bomb in the center of town? It's still active, and on a countdown. Now, I don't know when it's going to go off, but it would easily wipe this place from off the map. I wasn't able to talk to about this a couple years ago, you were dashing throughout town, looking for your father." Luke butted in. "Simms... If it's been so long, do you really think it's still ac-" "Yes, I know so. But I don't know how to disarm it, and if I'm anyone to judge, you're a whiz with mechanics. So could you disarm it? I'll pay you if you need caps..."

The Paladin blinked. "Of course! You just needed to ask, no caps necessary!" Lucas sighed with relief. "We are in your debt. I'll leave you to it!" Obviously much happier, he turned and strode away, whistling. Good thing I have my tools with me. He walked down the hill and turned to the nuclear bomb.

He was in the middle of examining it when he heard a person clearing their throat behind him. Turning, he saw this shady looking character staring at him with dark sunglasses. "Would a scavenger such as you like to earn a big score?"

Luke mentally snorted. _Scavenger. As if._ He was a bit low in caps, even though he could sell power armor and easily get rich. "Go on." Lowering his voice down to a whisper, he motioned to Moriarty's saloon. "Let's talk in there."

Nodding, somewhat mystified, he followed the man into the bar. Moriarty didn't necessarily like him, but he enjoyed bartering with the Paladin. Nova gave him her usual kind smile. Now while he never had payed for her 'services', he had donated caps to her, to help her on her way to get rid of the debt she owed.

Sitting down with this guy, he patiently waited for the man to continue. "Alright. So would you be willing to activate the nuclear bomb in this cesspool for two thousand caps?" _Wait, what?_ Blinking, thinking he misheard, he spoke. "Uh, could you say that again?" The man sighed. "For destroying this garbage heap, I'll pay you two thousand caps on the spot."

 _No freaking way this guy expects me to do so!_ "I'll... Need to think about it." The man nodded. "Don't take to long. If you're looking around, ask for a Mr. Burke." Uneasy, Luke got up, and walked over to Nova. "Hey, do you know anything about this nutter?" He whispered, gesturing to Burke.

She shrugged. "Other than he's from Tenpenny Tower, that fancy building with the uptight snobs, nothing. He's an unknown." Luke nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. Thanks Nova..." He got up and left, immediately zipping to Lucas Simms.

"Have you gotten around to disarming the bomb yet?" He asked. Luke quickly shook his head. "Listen Simms, there's a man in Moriarty's bar that wants to use that bomb to blow up Megaton." The man's eyes went wide. "He what?! Let's go, now!" He pulled out his Assault rifle, and stalked toward the bar. Luke followed close behind, plasma rifle out and humming.

Pretty much what could be said is that Lucas quite literally kicked the door open, aiming his rifle around, before settling on the one figure he didn't know: Burke. "Alright you cretin, you're coming with me." Burke remained expressionless, though his voice strained considerably. "Certainly." Simms turned, but Luke saw the other man tense and reach inside his coat, most likely for a gun.

Quickly bashing the man over the head with the butt of his gun, Burke found himself dazed on the ground, plasma rifle stuffed to his face. "What the-?!" Lucas, as well as the on lookers, were confused as to what just happened.

Ripping away a section of Burke's trench coat, he pulled out what he suspected; a revolver that was most likely going to be used on the sheriff. "I saw this piece of garbage reaching for this." The Paladin stated firmly, tossing the weapon to Simms. "Take him away." Luke's words were punctuated with a smack as he slammed the gun again into the man, knocking him out cold.

What a drag. He thought tiredly, thinking of all the things that've transpired in the last forty-eight hours, as Simms dragged Burke outside, probably to hand over to a Deputy. He checked the time on his Pip-Boy(Yes, he still had that. Hey, it's useful), and quickly left the bar, and headed toward the bomb.

It took a little while, nuclear bombs were never easy to defuse, and he finally packed up and headed toward the entrance. Lydia was leaning back in the pilot's chair, looking bored. Hearing him walk out, she rolled her eyes. "About time, you slowpoke."

"Ah, give me a break. I'll tell you what happened at the Citadel." Luke chuckled, jumping into the back seat. Looking behind herself, Lydia snorted. "You better, we're an hour late to Elder Lyons' address."

"Oh... Great."


	4. Updates and Requests of Various Types

To one and to all, I've realized that this story, or collection of stories, have been neglected. School and games keep blocking my writer self from writing. However, for the moment my muse has decided to leave me, so I decided to make this page for requests that you readers can submit using reviews.

To to add to this, I will accept requests not only for this story, but for my newest one about Fire Emblem that is slowly but surely going to have its first chapter cranked out sometime soon. So, here are the current topics I will be allowing requests for and the terms thereof.

The Wanderer's Log:

Any and all short story requests are open. Anything from the Pitt, earlier in in the storyline, or even alternate stories, ie, evil Wanderer that destroys Megaton or the BoS. However, I have some terms. One, I will not, and will never write a story with romance in it beyond kissing, flirting, and hand holding. This does not exclude a couple crude jokes I may or may not use. But still, don't bother asking. Two, while I may take actual quotes from the game, I am trying to reduce the severity of the language, basically trying to avoid cussing. So don't be disappointed.

Reply to jukehero461- Certainly, fellow Brother. The next chapter I shall work on shall be the assault of Paradise Falls. Yup, I believe you gave me enou chapters for a while.

Paradoxes and Beginnings(Title still a work in progress):

This is the Fire Emblem story I mentioned above, and at the moment, I just need a couple suggestions to kick it into gear. Firstly, the main character thereof is an OC dubbed Kin'to. I would like some parents from the original Shepards for him, but under certain conditions. One, Robin(Only male Robin in this story) may not be his father. Two, preferably, I'd prefer one of the Shepards from the Valmese continent as one of his parents, basically Lon'qu, Say'ri, and Len'fay. However, only one is preferred as the parent. Three, he may not be the offspring of Chrom and Sumia.

At the moment, I will take any requests and consider them, but please do not think that I've ignored you if your request does not appear either at all or immediately.

Thanks guys. -Pyrus


	5. Fall of Paradise

_Why do I feel like everyone's fricken errand boy?_ Luke snorted to himself, kicking a cactus with a power armored foot. Even in his sweet T-51b Winterized power armor, he couldn't intimidate people easily.

Still, he had to admit he had a soft spot for the children of Little Lamplight, even if that mayor of theirs had a worse mouth than some of the Brotherhood Outcast soldiers he had come across in his trek through the Capital Wasteland.

When he offered him access to the Vault in exchange for freeing the few captives at a slave trade, he didn't think twice, accepting the terms. He needed the G.E.C.K. anyways, and helping out someone was a bonus.

In his book, if it meant hurting slavers, hunting super mutants, or shooting raiders, then it was good and just to do.

That was before he had walked literally forty miles up hills, because his Pip-Boy had a few 'detours', infested with radscorpions, deathclaws, the whole nine yards. He was sore, tired, hungry, and pissed off. Finally, he decided to take a break, plopping down on the cracked, dusty grounds.

Gently taking his power helmet off, he drank deeply from a Nuka Cola soft drink, which he had retrieved from his waist pack. _Still cold and bubbly._ Luke thought pleasantly, eyes shut. Once he finished the bottle, he tossed it away, hearing it break, before getting back up.

It had been an extremely short break, but last thing he needed was a Raider ambush or more of the lovely and exquisite wildlife. Still, his legs moaned in protest, even with the reinforced leg armor, and a grimace followed soon after.

Eventually, he neared the location his Pip-Boy had marked and mapped earlier. It looked like a massive complex, perhaps military? Nah. Military bases usually had chain link fence with barbed wire, plus had towers and the such.

Actually, it looked closer to a bunch of merchant stores, though it had more defensive measures than even Megaton, though it's wall wasn't nearly as high. He saw a clear cut path, and saw two men dressed closer in fashion to raiders, so his hand slipped the small pistol-sized Alien Blaster from his waist holster, hiding it behind his back.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. I was wanting to ent-" He paused as the slavers looked his armored figure up and down. "... Gotta say, you're heavily armored." One of them said breezily, motioning towards his partner, who drew out a Mesmetron.

"But if you want to enter, just grab someone for us. Us slavers gotta stick together, and you look like a prosp-" Luke quickly flicked out his blaster, fired, and within seconds, the two slavers were reduced to blue ashes.

Almost as soon as that was finished, a sound of an explosion rocked the air a little ways away, and gunfire erupted from that direction. Grabbing the Mesmatron and slipping it awkwardly into his blaster holster, he slid over the short barriers and headed to the actual entrance to the place.

 _No idea who the attackers are, but perfect timing. I was wondering how I was going to storm this place by myself._ Luke chuckled slightly, before peeking around a corner. Ducking back behind cover, a hail of assault rifle bullets pierced the wall to the back.

Close one. Peeking once again, he fired three shots, and was rewarded with the sound of flesh disintegrating. Ugh, actually never mind, it wasn't much of a reward. Disgusting sounding. Looking back out, all the slavers in the front were dead, leaving a few slaves behind.

 _Ah. Those must be the children._ He smiled under the power armor, raising his hands up in an attempt to not frighten the slaves. Their response was slightly disconcerting, as instead of fleeing, they stayed huddled in the corner. Through the bullet-proof glass visor, his eyes flashed with concern.

"I'm here to help." Luke stated, walking slowly toward them, making sure his blaster was pointed away from the slaves. No response. _Why aren't they leaving? I would think th- oh. Collars. Explosive collars._ "Let me see the collars." He ordered, cramming his gun, albeit very awkwardly, into his holster along with the Mesmetron.

He strode forward, quickly taking the piece of tech into his hands. The current wearer must have been... Eight? Nine? Geez, these slavers were barbaric. Even in the Waste, there were many less objectionable ways to earn money.

Even with his hands inside power armor, he was able to pop the collar off quickly and effectively. _Unscrew that. Turn that off. Yank those wires... Done._ The next few minutes were filled with more gun fire a little ways away, and the slaves fled the moment the collars were deactivated.

Finally peeking into the actual main part of the slaver compound, he found what looked like a full blown battlefield. One entire side of the complex had been blown apart, with power armored soldiers firing at slavers.

One thing was for certain; it was definitely the Brotherhood. How did Luke know this? Well, they all had a similar emblem emblazoned on their armor to the Lyons' Pride. He was fond of that squad, helping them clear out GNR plaza a few weeks back. He even got a set of T-45 power armor as thanks when he saved that rambunctious Initiate Reddin.

Honestly, it was sheer luck, since he didn't even have power armor. (Well actually, he had had a set of simple T-45 with him but no idea how to operate it.) He had heard the Behemoth charging their position, and he yanked(barely, having to yank a ton of metal along with her and all) both himself and the Initiate away from the vehicle that promptly exploded.

But enough of that, time to join the calvary. Blaster at the ready again, Luke merely chuckled as the slavers attempted to put up resistance by using assault rifles and a few mini guns. Granted, the mini guns could hurt, but the point of power armor was to deflect bullets and energy shots.

Those slavers toting the rocket launchers would be a problem though. Still, their makeshift armor was nothing compared the sheer technological aspect of the Alien Blaster, reducing many of them to ash within seconds.

 _Wonder where head honcho Eulogy Jones is._ Luke questioned to himself, not really able to tell faces in the battlefield that was Paradise Falls.

After the crazed firefight, Luke had met up with the BoS soldiers that started securing the area. Of course, they were wary at first, but after introducing himself, the soldiers nodded with recognition. Of course, once everyone had started camping out in the former slaver paradise, a couple Initiates started bothering him.

"Are you the one who saved the Pride at GNR?" One, definitely female, asked him. Taking off his T-51 helmet, he chuckled good-naturedly. "Well... It was more like they saved my sorry hide, but I guess."

"Weren't you the one who killed the Behemoth, though?" The second Initiate asked. Dang, that guy sounded like the Overseer back in the Vault. Damn, that brought back memories, most of them poor. And also, it was spur of the moment, grabbing the Fat Man launcher. "Er... Well yeah. It was mostly out of desperation though." The Wanderer was getting slightly embarrassed by the attention.

Sure, it was nice to have praise for once, but he honestly didn't deserve any credit. Anyone with an intact heart would've helped. "Nonsense, Reddin herself was praising you back at the Citadel." The female Initiate waved off, shaking her head.

"Some would think she found a hero." The male Initiate added, a smirk coming to his face. _Geez. I really don't want to deal with this for now. Sleep. Sleep._ "I'd love to keep talking, but sleep calls for me." The male Initiate laughed while the female looked disappointed, but they ceased their praise. _Finally_.

Laying back on the hard ground of the Waste, he glanced at the setting sun, enjoying the colors. Then bolted upright, earning a few strange looks, as a single thought entered his tired mind.

 _I let the kids go into the Wasteland without going with them._

 **Author's Notes**

 **Heyo, finally found time to write this one, sorry to everyone for the extended wait.**

 **Yeah, I know this is a rather short chapter, but I've been focusing much more on Of Dragon and Falchions, so please forgive me.**

 **Don't hesitate to PM me if you have a suggestion or two you wanna put in.**

 **Please read, review, and enjoy!**


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